Just a short little ficlet Author's Note- I didn't create Hannah Abbott. JK Rowling deserves all of the credit, which I shall graciously give to her.

---

Herbology had barely been in session for ten minutes when Professor Sprout pulled Hannah aside. "Miss Abbott, could you step outside with me for a moment?" she asked her, a worried expression plastered on her face. Hannah nodded straight away, quite sure she knew what this concerned. Professor Sprout lead Hannah out of the greenhouse, calling back to the class that she'd be back in a moment and to continue working quietly, and that she'd know if there was any trouble while she was gone.

"Professor Sprout, I'm so sorry, if this has anything to do with me not taking points from that fifth year girl last night during rounds, I'm very very sorry... it's just... she was so sad that she'd lost her cat, and that was the only reason she was out after curfew, and I know if I had a cat and lost it," Hannah rambled on as the two walked from the green house towards the castle before Professor Sprout cut her off. "Miss Abbott, this doesn't concern your Prefect duties, I'm afraid..."

"Oh," was all that Hannah replied as the two neared the castle, walking the remainder of the way in almost complete silence. Hannah wracked her brain as to what the possible reason could be that she was called out of class. Finally as the neared Professor Sprout's office, she thought she had it. "Ma'am, if this has anything to do with my essay from last Tuesday, I know it wasn't my best work. I had an Exam the next day in Ch," "Your essay was one of the best in the class, Hannah," Professor Sprout cut her off again as they walked into her small office. She motioned to one of the chairs. "Have a seat, please."

Hannah did as she was told. The worry she felt wasn't eased in the slightest as Professor Sprout took the seat next to Hannah rather than behind her desk. "Is... everything all right, Professor?" Hannah asked in a small voice, playing nervously with the ends of her hair while hoping her inner state of panic wasn't too obvious. Professor Sprout merely frowned, turning her chair so that she faced Hannah more directly. "Miss Abbott... Hannah, I hate that I have to be the one who has to tell you this," she started, the nervous pit in Hannah's stomach growing deeper. "I'm afraid there's been a death."

A million thoughts went racing through Hannah's mind at once. Flashbacks of Cedric her fourth year, Susan's aunt the past summer... If it was a student and she was being told ahead of time due to her status as Prefect... wouldn't Ernie be there too? Had Ernie been in Herbology? She hadn't even been out of the classroom for ten minutes and she couldn't remember for the life of her if Ernie'd been absent from class. Hannah felt like she was going to be ill as she tried to force herself into saying something, anything. "Who is... was... Ernie?" she asked, feeling her panic-stricken voice start to crack.

Professor Sprout shock her head sadly. "No, Mr. MacMillan is still among us, thank Merlin. Hannah...your mother was found dead this morning," she explained bluntly. The sigh of relief that it hadn't been Ernie found itself caught in Hannah's throat. She stared back at Professor Sprout in a state of complete disbelief for a moment that seemed to last forever, not able to make the millions of things she wanted to cry come out. Professor Sprout went on after passing Hannah a folded piece of paper. "We received the owl from your brother Kevin about half an hour ago," she explained, relaying the details of the letter outloud as Hannah struggled to unfold the note, her hands shaking. "Your mother was one of four people shopping in Spindles a few hours ago. Your father had gone off down the street to make dinner reservations, and during his absence, the small clothing store was attacked by You Know Who's followers... along with a few other shops and restaurants in the area. Everyone inside of Spindles was killed through the use of the Killing Curse."

Professor Sprout paused and glanced up at Hannah, who'd been staring at the letter the entire time her Head of House had been speaking. This had to be a joke. The letter was in Kevin's writing. Why would he joke about something like this? This WASN'T FUNNY. "Hannah? Hannah? ...Miss Abbott?" Professor Sprout attempted to snap Hannah from her trance. "Hannah, your father will be here in a few hours to pick you up. If you'd like to, you can go right ahead and start packing up now while everyone else is in class so you don't have to worry about any questions. I do have to get back to class now though, but you're welcome to stay here in my office until you're ready if you'd like." Rather than wait like she'd suggested, Hannah got to her feet, whispering a quick "Thank you Professor" before slowly wandering out of her office towards the Hufflepuff dorms, the information she'd just been given having not yet sunk in in the slightest.

She'd just rounded the corner to the dorms when she stopped dead in her tracks, being pulled by some unexplainable force to examine the letter that was still clenched in her fist once again. The only words of Kevin's hastily scrawled writing that seemed to come in to focus were the words "mother" and "dead", no matter how many times Hannah tried to read it over. The ever-growing knot in Hannah's stomach had finally grown to the point where she felt like she might very well lose her lunch right then and there. Her mother was dead. Her mum had been murdered. Knowing that she needed to get out of the hallway before that hour's classes were dismissed, Hannah ran the rest of the way to the Hufflepuff Commons and her dorm, slamming the door shut behind her and collapsing on her bed in tears.